52. ~Whoever tasted lost~, _i.e._ who tasted (he) lost. In this construction _whoever_ must precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently uses _who_ in this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp. _Son._ xii. 12, "_who_ loves that must first be wise and good." See Abbott, § 251. ~lost his upright shape~. In _Odyssey_ x. we read: "So Circe led them (followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice, the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them acorns and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do always batten." (_Butcher and Lang's translation._) 54. ~clustering locks~: comp. l. 608. Milton here pictures the Theban Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 16, "ivy-crowned Bacchus"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 303; _Sams. Agon._ 569. 55. ~his blithe youth~, _i.e._ his fresh young figure. 57. 'A son much like his father, but more like his mother.' This may indicate that it is upon Comus's character as a sorcerer rather than as a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_: "Much of the father's face, More of the mother's grace." 58. ~Comus~: see note, l. 46. The Greek word κῶμος denoted a revel or merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of riotous mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word _comedy_. In classical mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this enabled Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new characteristics. 59. ~frolic~: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective; comp. _L'Alleg._ 18, "frolic wind"; Tennyson's _Ulysses_, "a frolic welcome." It is now chiefly used as a noun or a verb, and a new adjective, _frolicsome_, has taken its place; from this, again, comes the noun _frolicsomeness_. _Frolic_ is from the Dutch, and cognate with German _fröhlich_, so that _lic_ in 'frolic' corresponds to _ly_ in such words as cleanly, godly, etc. ~of~: this use of the preposition may be compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as _æger animi_ = sick of soul; of = 'because of' or 'in respect of.' 60. ~Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields~, _i.e._ roving through Gaul and Spain. 'Rove' here governs an accusative: comp. _Lyc._ 173, "walked the waves"; _Par. Lost_, i. 521, "roamed the utmost Isles."